LivingMath.net  

Julie's story of what Living Math is all about

“Reading math” is really a more central idea to Living Math than mathematics history. History became more of an offshoot of the reading approach to learning math. It was through my oldest son’s growing aversion to math, but intense love of reading, that we discovered this path to learning math could be very effective. Inevitably that led to learning the history of mathematics. Living Math Through History ideas simply evolved from my own personal interest in the history of mathematics, which I found natural to share with homeschool parents who were humanities-oriented and who struggled with interest in math. I saw that even with myself having a math background as a professional CPA for many years, I struggled to find a way to communicate math in an interesting way to my children if they didn’t have the interest in the more traditional presentations, which were all I knew how to teach myself, or the ability yet to understand the financial context I understood math best in. When we discovered the books, Mathematicians Are People, Too, I found myself intensely intrigued that math had a very human history. I was frankly amazed that I went through so many years of schooling and never knew this fascinating history existed. I also saw my oldest son go from feeling apathetic toward math, to enjoying and having interest in math. After a year of reading the books and doing many activities surrounding the individuals we read about, my oldest son went so far one day as to say he thought he might like to be a mathematician! I saw that for kids and/or parents who connect with biographies and history more than math itself, this approach could open doors of interest and enthusiasm that traditional approaches could not. This led to teaching homeschool co-op classes. As I described the classes on homeschool lists, I was asked to write up the plans for others. That’s how the plans that are on the website developed. The reading and/or history approach is not for everyone, and it may not be a long term study for everyone. For kids that love math, learning its history can be fun and provide a deeper relevance, even as it will not usually take center stage. Kids who dislike reading will benefit from being read to, but may never take off and read stacks of math readers on their own. But over the years I’ve found there are many uses in between, from using material for math relevance and context to kids, to providing a math and science history course separate from math that can be stretched out over years. Parent teachers thought they disliked math find they can enjoy it for the first time and begin to even understand math as a cohesive, logical outgrowth of human activity over thousands of years. The depth of the study can vary a lot as well; it can be something to kick-start interest at one level, which then leads to a more enthusiastic interest in math on a traditional path. We’ve all seen how one experience can light a fire that ignites a life long interest in a topic in ourselves or others. While my oldest son “read” math and learned non-traditionally in this way until 9th grade, my middle children have been more interested in the math itself, and thus have read less, and done more actual math. My 8th grader enjoys the math history stories, but he would rather work through his algebra text step by step than graze for many hours on middle school level quirky math readers, he is not a voracious reader like his older brother was. My daughters are split as well, one is clearly reading oriented and has already embarked on much the same math education path her oldest brother took, spending countless hours immersed in math readers and much more limited time on arithmetic instruction, while her older sister enjoys doing math and does not choose to read math readers beyond her years spent with math picture books. But to comment on the nearly-universal appeal of Mathematicians Are People, Too book series, all four of my children and all the kids I have taught have greatly enjoyed it, and had it read aloud and/or read to themselves many times over. I believe the study of math history is vital and meaningful, particularly to the majority of us who study mathematics but will never become mathematicians. If one does not have an inborn drive to study mathematics, the infamous question, “What will I ever need this for?” is best answered by studying the history of mathematics, which highlights how pervasive mathematics are throughout science, music, art and nature. The critical role math has played in mankind’s development, both in practical and philosophical terms, cannot be communicated in tiny marginal insets in a textbook, the only way most traditionally-educated students ever get exposed to this history. The depth and breadth of a study of mathematics history can vary greatly, and it used to be the case that one didn’t have much access to readable materials unless they were a graduate student. But the wealth of materials becoming available to us that brings even some complex mathematical ideas in their historical context down to a level even a early elementary child can understand makes it possible to communicate the beauty of math, and the human role in discovering and developing it, to our own children. And we as homeschool parents benefit from the side-by-side study with our children, when many of us would not have read a scholarly text on the history of mathematics in our lifetimes.